It’s obvious that the next US president will have to lead and work with global leaders on issues concerning environmental policy. And yet, sadly, climate change as an issue hasn’t really appeared at the debates.​For scientists and engineers, the attitude of the next president towards investment in renewable energy will influence the funding of projects across academia and industry. No matter how you look at it, the presidential stance on climate change will greatly impact our futures.So, how do the remaining candidates stack up? If the election was based solely on the issue of climate change, I believe your vote should be for the democrats, and really, for Bernie Sanders. The following is a breakdown of not only beliefs about IFclimate change is real…but IF SO, what can we do about it?

The Republicans:In general, the republican candidates either deny climate change completely, or claim it is simply not occurring today. None of the candidates have much to say about the issue –except for the most enigmatic candidate –so here’s a brief breakdown.Ted Cruz claims that climate change is simply, “on hold” and supports his claim with supposed satellite data showing that there “has not been significant global warming for the past 18 years.” John Kasich seems confused about the issue, as during one GOP debate he admitted that humans contribute to climate change…but then quickly retracted saying actually “we don’t know how much humans actually contribute.”

Okay, and the candidate that is scarily becoming the favorite…Donald Trump. On the positive note, Drumpf “believes there’s weather.” But denies climate change as a “total, very expensive hoax!” through his twitter. Furthermore, he once stated “global warming was created by and for the Chinese.” That was a few years ago, and Trump has retracted saying OK maybe the Chinese didn’t invent it…but it certainly is “just a very, very expensive form of tax.” Perhaps that’s a sign of progress.

The Democrats:Both democratic candidates not only recognize climate change, but acknowledge it as one of the most pressing issues. Their approaches in how to take on climate change are similar, but how committed are the candidates, and will they be able to realistically achieve their goals?

image from forbes.com

Hillary Clinton: Hillary has fully detailed her plans on addressing climate change. She has vowed to extend smart pollution and efficiency standards such as those covered in Obama’s Clean Power Plan. She has set to work with states, cities, and communities across the nation through a $60 billion Clean Energy Challenge. She has committed to install over half a billion solar panels and to generate enough clean energy to power every home in America within the decade. Clinton’s stance on fracking is not clean-cut. One of the biggest doubts for Clinton’s campaign is the influence on future climate change actions by her financial supporters. Huge contributions from super PACs such as the Priorities USA Action are funded by donors who have significantly contributed to Clinton’s campaign. The donors are linked to oil and gas interests, ties in Wall Street with similar deep investments in oil, fossil fuels, and natural gas.​

image from huffingtonpost.com

​Bernie Sanders: Bernie is pretty straight to the point with his climate change policies. He advocates to block fossil fuel industries from lobbying and making campaign contributions to remove their influence on decision making. Bernie has vowed to ban fracking, Arctic oil drilling, offshore drilling, exports of natural gas and oil, and pipeline projects such as the Keystone XL (an issue Clinton has changed her position on). Like Clinton, he has vowed to make investments into solar energy and alternative energy projects. Sanders also extends his commitment to become a leader in facing climate change internationally through partnerships with China, Russia, India and addressing climate change as not only an environmental issue, but as an issue of global national security.​

Climate change is not just an environmental or societal issue. It's political. We need our leaders to collaborate internationally, evaluate data, create plans, and implement policies that will move us forward to preserve our planet. It’s not just about CO2 emissions either. It’s all of the pieces coming together. The next president is going to have to make not one decision, but multiple decisions on who to trust, what to believe, who to work with, and how to take action to save our planet. This election is not only about climate change, but it is certainly about it. The next decade of environmental action –or lack of –is crucial to the preservation or destruction of our planet. The environmental policies made over the next 8 years will have a lasting impact on our planet. So while global warming isn’t the only important issue in this election, you shouldn’t overlook it when you’re casting your vote.